Friday, January 06, 2006

SA shacks increase by 417 a day

The number of shack dwellings in South Africa rose from 1,45-million in 1996 to 2,14-million in 2003, according to Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu. That was 210 shacks per day on average in the five years between 1996 and 2001.

This figure rose too double that at 417 new shacks a day on average in the next 3 year period between 2001 and 2003... M&G

'There is no holiday in the shacks'From the slums of Durban, a new movement is giving voice to millions of South Africans living in shacks and increasingly feeling forgotten by the post-apartheid government.

Abahlali Base Mjondolo, the Zulu name for shack dwellers, is the largest group to emerge from South Africa's informal settlements, the sprawling slums of wood, corrugated steel and cardboard shacks that have mushroomed near cities... M&G